The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Salman Rushdie

Seán usually enjoys Rushdie's books and enjoyed this one very much. It describes the lives and relationships of a female Indian singer, a male guitarist and a photographer, the storyteller. The title refers to earthquakes; people's sense of solidity of who they are; the ground shifting.

Half-way through it becomes clear that Rushdie is writing not about this world but a parallel world where some things happen differently (e.g. Kennedy is not assassinated). The two worlds then start to overlap.

The names of the main characters are very strange, for a reason which becomes clear later, and this is off-putting at first but. A huge story, very detailed. Rushdie is a great storyteller. 'Love, death, drugs - it's all there'.
Seán 12/9/99

Andrew was struggling with this book. He found he cared about the characters and wanted to know what was going to happen. However, Rushdie goes into too much detail, going back generations with each character and uses such florid language. Rushdie cannot write rock n roll. He will finish it, even though it's not keeping him awake on the train in the evenings.
Andrew 5/12/99

Doreen admitted that having heard some excerpts of this on the radio she had rejected the book without reading a page. She commented that after listening to Art Malik reading a few chapters it all sounded like an introduction. She also commented that the book seemed too full of silly ideas.
Doreen 16/01/00

By the same author

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